SkymonkeyONE

I am not a very big fan of the Oxygn because of it''s large size. When I "must" wear a full-face, it's my standard factory diver, normally without the lens when it's warm outside (goggles over the top). SEVERAL friends of mine have had the problem of their visors flying up and then tearing off with Oxygns; others swear by them. An option here is the new BoneHead Havoc RW helmet. It is about the same size as the A3, but I guarantee you that the lens isn't going to flip up prematurely on that thing! The latch mechanism is simple, yet terribly secure. You can check out pictures of it on the Bonehead site. Chuck

At both of the dropzones I work at the general rule is that you do it late in the day and you land away from the main landing area, packing area, and spectator area. The pilot is always briefed ahead of time. Normally, we try and do them out of the 182, but if it is done out of the Otter, then the rest of the load is filled only with regulars; no other tandem passengers who might get freaked. Ten years ago a friend of mine was getting out of the Army. He just HAD to do a naked skydive so, up they went; three guys and a girl. After an uneventful jump from 10,500, they all landed on the other side of the DZ, right next to Gene Paul Thacker's house. Big mistake! GPT and Miss Billie had some relatives visiting from West Virginia and they were all standing outside when the crew came in for a landing. The ass-chewing they got wasn't pretty! Needless to say, after that jump anyone partaking of said activity landed on the backside of the airport, away from everything and everybody. Chuck

Agreed. I would probably skydive both places, but stay at Perris due to it's great bar,restaurant, pool, and bunkhouse. Chuck

A better question would be "how many have NOT done at least one naked skydive?" Chuck

Last one I jumped was at the Halloween boogie in Barnwell, SC about 1994. Rolled a 12-person tube out of that one! There and at the Herd Boogie. Haven't seen one of them smoke belching, oil leaking, eardrum popping beauties LATELY. Chuck

Thanks. I was quite surprised that nobody came up and identified themselves as a dz.commer I wore my t-shirt in the bombshelter one night and everything! I will most certainly do better at the next meet. A bunch of us are going up to The Ranch for that one, so it ought to be a hoot! Chuck

Elsinore? Then you know my teammate Bryan Harrel! Tell that monkey to tighten up! LOL! Chuck

I didn't mean to imply that Marcus wasn't a good guy. I have only met him once and he seemed OK. Don't worry; I am not about to form an opinion based solely on the inuendo that was flying in the wreck-dot newsgroup. I am sure that there is probably more to BOTH sides of the story. As I understand it, the person that was told to leave has now opened up a gear and rigging shop just outside The Ranch property in Gardner. Hopefully, everything will work out for all the involved parties. It's sad to me that the guy (is his name Bud?) can no longer jump at the DZ, though. Then again, as you stated, I don't know pretend to know the whole story. In my response to the original poster I tried to make the best comparison I could to what I read was happening up there and give him my answer according to that. I hope that clarifies my answer to him and everyone else. Chuck "Go Fast, Take Chances, and for God's Sake Don't Wear a Helmet!"

You are correct on all counts. Jim really is a great canopy pilot, as are all of his teammates. He is very lucky to be able to make a living at it. His and Lyle Presse's desire to push the sport in this fairly new and structured way is doing a lot to make us swoopers look less like a bunch of "loose canons" and more like people who might actually know what they are doing. You are also correct in stating that Atair canopies do a good job in the swoop arena. The Cobalt is just a great all around performance canopy. It does everything I want a parachute to do. I consider myself very lucky to have them as a sponsor. I do not jump the Cobalt because it was given to me; I still pay for my parachutes (albeit at a nice discount due to my factory pilot status) and don't mind saying so. We only have one guy with a "full ride" right now, Caven Warren. He is a great pilot. Not that the rest of us aren't; he is just the one that has done the best in competition at this point. We are all very anxious to get to the next competition. I am sure that I am going to do better next time. Gotta run! Chuck

I was kind of wanting a new open-faced helmet for swooping competitions and working with students, so I had a friend hook me up with Bonehead. I made a coast-to-coast phone call and got Jeanie on the phone in the middle of the night. Intrigued, she said to come by when I got to Perris. I took a tour of the factory and was duly impressed. I scored myself a new metalic blue Mindwarp (pimped out, of course) and we baked it on the spot! After reading some of the complaints about people having their audibles get ripped off their helmet or having them fly out of the pocket, I was impressed to find that the new design is MUCH more secure. This helmet fits like a glove; not too tight though. It has provided me great service and I am very happy that I chose it. For those of you that do not like the exterior audible, the HOT ticket is the waterski version. It is setup so that you have more room for your ears. It also has a goggle-keeper on the back for those people that jump them (I jump in sunglasses). I give this company my highest rating. Chuck Blue D-12501

I was kind of wanting a new open-faced helmet for swooping competitions and working with students, so I had a friend hook me up with Bonehead. I made a coast-to-coast phone call and got Jeanie on the phone in the middle of the night. Intrigued, she said to come by when I got to Perris. I took a tour of the factory and was duly impressed. I scored myself a new metalic blue Mindwarp (pimped out, of course) and we baked it on the spot! After reading some of the complaints about people having their audibles get ripped off their helmet or having them fly out of the pocket, I was impressed to find that the new design is MUCH more secure. This helmet fits like a glove; not too tight though. It has provided me great service and I am very happy that I chose it. For those of you that do not like the exterior audible, the HOT ticket is the waterski version. It is setup so that you have more room for your ears. It also has a goggle-keeper on the back for those people that jump them (I jump in sunglasses). I give this company my highest rating. Chuck Blue D-12501

I haven't been pulled over by vice LATELY, but did lose my license TWICE last year for speeding out of state. For some reason the state troopers were not impressed when I told them I was on the way to a boogie. Chuck

Not bad. I still have my "HOOK IT!" tag that I used to run on my old Corvette. Vanity plates are very inexpensive here in North Carolina: only $10 added to the cost of regular tag renewal. Chuck

I have heard all about this problem in the wreck. From the sounds of it, it got fairly ugly. I guess the independent guy (who is a sub-dealer for PEC) got run off after Marcus Price (the owner of Pier Ltd) complained to the DZO and manager that he was losing business. This was all possible because the DZ had signed a sole-vendor agreement with Marcus. My take on your situation up there is that your "club" is not operating as such in this instance. Personally, I feel that in a true club, all officers and members should vote on matters such as who will be allowed to do what. I am sure that Marcus is paying you guys to be able to operate on your property, just as the tandem factory should be. How I relate to your situation is in the student training arena. I instruct at one of two primarily-military clubs that operates at Raeford Parachute Center in addition to the civilian vendor, Raeford Skydiving Service. We have no connection whatsoever with the civilian student training vendor and must stay within the bounds of "club business" in order to be able to operate there. RSS's contract with Raeford guarantees that neither of our clubs will take away their business. We do plenty of tandems and train tons of students, but not for people who do not meet our membership requirements. As Raeford is a private business, the owners have all the say in who trains who and who sells what on their property. Still, in days past, before Tony and Kate took over the gear shop, there were plenty of guys in Fayetteville who were dealing gear. This didn't really bother the DZ much because nobody really liked the guy that was running the shop (Skip Summers) and he wasn't coming anywhere close to the other guys' prices. So long as Gene Paul was getting his rent money from Skip, then he didn't care; or at least that is how it seemed. Nowadays, while there are still some guys running around selling gear independently, they can't beat Tony and Kate's (SkyKat) prices so Skykat gets 99% of the business anyway. Since the DZ is private and now owned by Tony and Kate Thacker, if someone were to try and make a bonafide effort at undercutting SkyKat on DZ property, they would be run off without hesitation. When Raeford was still "technically" a municipal airport (Gene Paul was only recently permitted to purchase the actual runway from the city), third parties could have maybe filed a grievance with the city council. Now that the airport and ALL of the surrounding property is owned by the Thackers, they have every right to make the rules. While The Ranch property is owned by Billy Richards (isn't it?), I am not exactly sure how your "club" handles it's sub-vendors or how it was able to kick out a member in good standing just because he was selling gear on his own time. Chuck D-12501

This can be especially troublesome at single-runway DZ's. Places that fly large turbines, but only make one pass at altitude make for even tougher conditions. The hot ticket is to stay in the back of the plane and look out during the whole ride to altitude. Also, prior to exit you should locate the DZ before you let go of the plane. Jumping out blind and dumping low at an unfamiliar DZ is definitely not the ticket. Hell, even at my home DZ I have taken it so long and low that I had a hard time getting my bearings! Situational awareness is key. Chuck

Why would it be a prank? Olav, while considered very snooty by most of my freefly buddies who have met him, is still just a guy. Actually, most of the world-champion skydivers I am friends with are totally approachable. Chuck

Good idea! I have to go out there anyway and take care of some business. Chuck

I agree with S.P. on this one. I have had spandex BOC's on my last three containers and have had good service out of all of them. While cordura pockets are nice when it comes to general wear-time, the spandex in the mouth wears out just as fast as that of regular spandex pouches. It is for that reason that you are still going to have to do work on your rig at about the same time interval. I like cordura, but prefer spandex for those times when you DO end up with a "monkey fist" and have a hard pull. Chuck

Actually, I believe that more "conservative" jumpers shun ringed harnesses due to the excessive cost. I am not conservative by any means, but my new Odyssey is the first fully articulated rig I have owned in my 20 years in the sport. Nice, but very pricey. Chuck

I have not had this problem with my Odyssey, but I had it all the time with my old (pre-Sunpath) Jav. Chuck

"Release one riser..." Damn, you beat me to it! Better yet, hook your main up backwards and THEN cut one riser away.

Since you have already paid for your AFF FJC and made two jump, you should stay with that method for monetary reasons. I am concerned, though, that you took such a long break in between your two jumps. That is definitely not the way to go in AFF (nor any other training method for that matter). Maintaining currency is absolutely critical when you are in a student program. If money is the issue, then you should have went SL progression to start with. At least then you could have made more jumps during that period. It is my opinion as an Instructor with 20 years in the sport that if a person is going to go AFF, they should have all the money set aside to complete the course. It's only seven jumps (if you are a good student) and making one a month just does not cut it unless you are lucky enough to get lots of tunnel time during the breaks in training. But then if that were the case, you would have plenty of money to finish your training as wind tunnel time is EXPENSIVE. Do you follow what I am saying? Chuck Blue D-12501 SL-I, TM-I 2001

You truly could do much worse. Dropzone life is very rewarding so long as you are not a high-maintenance person. It is not that difficult at all to make a decent living off of skydiving; you just have to be willing to relocate to a busy DZ (or else have a pension from another job to augment your DZ salary). While technically not a "full-time" dropzone bum yet, I am damn close. My wife and I don't have ANY problems living in our 23' RV all weekend long. Chuck

Were you there during the swoop meet, and if so, why didn't you identify yourself to me, King of all Skymonkeys!? Anyway, glad you are back in the air. Chuck

It is both your, the S&TA and the pilot's call. If the pilot gives you the green light, then you have his permission to exit. Whether or not you choose to accept the spot or not is up to you. The pilot is legally bound by FAA regulations not to put you out in clouds or any other "unsafe" conditions such as crowded airspace, etc. On the ground, it is the S&TA's responsibility to call up to the plane if conditions on the ground deteriorate to the point that parachute landings become unsafe. In the airplane, after recieving the green light (or pilot's permission in a 182), it is up to you to guide the aircraft to a spot you are happy with. That is why big planes have buttons to make corrections and you have vocal chords so that you can make verbal corrections to a C-182 driver. Now, that being said, if the first jumper in a turbine aircraft pass decides he is good to go, then most people will trust that spot and follow. I personally will never climbout if I know for a fact that the spot is terribly off. The last thing I want to do is have to track for the DZ right after exit, thus blowing my $18 skydive. If I have a bunch of other monkeys behind me that just MUST get out, then I will let them pass and laugh as they land on the other side of the trees and search for a ride. Can't say I didn't warn them, can I? Some dropzones will only make one pass accross the DZ in a turbine..period. They do this as a money saving measure. Hell, at The Ranch it keeps jump tickets down to a measly $15! At places like CrossKeys for example, there are quite a bit of off-dropzone landings. The DZ anticipates this and always has someone ready to go fetch these guys from the golf course or wherever. On those flights it becomes very important that the jumper picks up the DZ prior to exit so as to get a good idea how high he or she needs to breakoff in order to make the DZ. It is not very wise to burn your 8-way down to 2,500 feet and expect to make it back. This is ESPECIALLY critical when you are acting as a freefall instructor or tandem master. The LAST thing I want to do is land in the top of a 200 foot tall Carolina pine tree while I am hauling meat! Hope that helps. Chuck D-12501